A recording medium playback device includes a recording medium accommodation unit, a carriage chassis having a pickup, a turntable and a pickup moving device, and a moving device. The moving device moves the carriage chassis from a standby position to a position between recording mediums accommodated in the recording medium accommodation unit to play back a recording medium. The recording medium loading device loads the recording medium inserted from outside into the recording medium accommodation unit. Also, when the carriage chassis is in the standby position, the pickup is situated on a vertical tangential plane tangent to an outer circumferential edge of the recording medium on the carriage chassis side at a point where the outer circumferential edge is intersected by a loading center line of the recording medium when the recording medium is completely loaded in the recording medium accommodation unit by the recording medium loading device.